And the geese are being fattened for slaughter. Ran across this on YouTube, and thought to myself: This includes every ‘tasteful’ holiday performance trope of the last 150 years, except possibly the pantomime dame.
Apart from crass explotation of the season, what’s on the agenda as we start another week?
tybee
this year, let’s win the war on xmas
OzarkHillbilly
@tybee: The war on X-mas is over. Walmart won.
raven
My great niece should like this with her interest in Irish Dance!
OzarkHillbilly
Holly Woodlawn is dead.
Holly came from Miami FLA
Hitchhiked her way across the USA
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she …
raven
Americans are consumed by FEAR!!!!!!!!
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Bush did say to go shopping, I guess FEAR was on sale.
BillinGlendaleCA
I saw, I think on LGF, that Halperin and Heilemann are getting their own show on MSNBC.
Baud
@raven: FEAR is gonna get fat. Americans are pretty obese.
Keith G
Slept in way too late. Still toasty under an electric blanket. I keep a window open at this time of year so that it’s 60 degrees inside. Ideal temperature for me. There is a cat staring at me wondering why the hell I’m not getting her breakfast for her.
My glance at the news indicates that the planet has not been destroyed in the last 6 hours, so I need to get up and prepare for a meeting with a federal marketplace advisor. We will be looking at changes in healthcare plans to see if any savings can be squeezed out of the process
Since the networks I will be dealing with are overly narrow and the pharmaceutical benefits are not terribly beneficial, I doubt they’ll be much savings. Still, what I’m dealing with beats the alternatives facing me before Obamacare became law. And that’s not a small thing.
Thus, I can say without reservation, “Thanks Obama!”
bemused
I tortured myself again reading the comment section of my local paper yesterday that doesn’t require anyone to sign his/her real name which guarantees it is generally a cesspool of ignorance, meanness, bigotry and every other nasty ‘ism you can think of. It brings back memories of all the petty little tyrants who thrive on bullying I have encountered throughout my life, co-workers, bosses, clerks, low-level bureaucrats, neighbors, anyone who has a little power and gleefully uses it to make people’s lives miserable whenever unnecessary. It wouldn’t surprise me if these little dictators are part or the whole of the 27% crazification factor group.
A couple of comments that made me want to throw things. One commenter ranted that Obama used the “misleading” term of 350 US mass shootings so far this year and he didn’t say what a mass shooting was, “two or more or a term to use to mislead and put forth anti-gun agenda”. Ah yes, it was inevitable the gun nuts would rapidly become mass shootings truthers. And this, “liberals refuse to admit the murder problem in America is mainly because of the breakup of the black family in inner big city” totally, predictably ignoring homegrown white male often self-described Christian terrorists committing mass murder no where near inner cities.
Another commenter complained about government welfare programs,125 according to his/her “last count”. The commenter got all nostalgic about pre-New Deal poorhouses. “Folks who couldn’t make it on their own or no help from family, friends went to the poorhouse where everyone worked to earn their keep. The difference today, 49%, technically in the poorhouse, yes government programs, live at home and get a check from the government. With our debt at $19 trillion, maybe we should bring back the poorhouse”. There’s no maybe about it for this commenter and many others. They would love to see mass incarceration of the poor and the unworthy in massive warehouses run by the government. I’m willing to bet that they would also love to get a government job at the poorhouses and get paid to oversee and inflict misery upon the people they hate.
BillinGlendaleCA
@bemused:
Small government, indeed.
(Spits).
Keith G
@OzarkHillbilly: So, Holly now walks on the other side.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: Just because I like Lou Reed:
Walk on the Wild side
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: “Sweet Jane” is the kid’s ringtone.
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused: I remember those. In the 60s we called them “the projects”.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: I just finished listening to it, came up right after WotWS..
bystander
In the President’s speech thread from last night, jnfr writes:
I dared myself to listen to Moanin’ Joe. He’s still feeling mighty skeered. He referred to Isis as an “apocalyptic” force, and The Weak One’s only solution is gun control. Even when these chickensh*t repubs can’t say it aloud, what they want is another invasion or nuclear destruction.
I’m glad I read the thread, tho, because I’m fortified for the “too little, too late” b/s that’s about to be unleashed.
bystander
@OzarkHillbilly: I loved that Holly was friends with Laura Nyro. Caught her nightclub act many years ago…she was great. What movie is better than “Trash”? And can we please get to see it again?
Mustang Bobby
A bit of shameless self-promotion. I know there aren’t too many of the B-J community in the area, but if you are, it will be a fun evening, I hope.
JPL
@bystander: I listened for five minutes. That could be a record for me.
Baud
National news disappointed no WWIII.
BillinGlendaleCA
@bystander: I listened to Joe for about 15 or 20 minutes, I’m surprised they didn’t need to take longer commercial breaks to mop up the floor. I’m about 60 miles from San Berdu and I’m not afraid to walk around Glendale, even at night(I know speaking of walking on the wild side). Grow the fuck up Joe!
Schlemazel
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I’d be more afraid if my daughter worked in his office
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: But if we get a “Republican Daddy”™, they’ll make the sand glow.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: It’s ridiculous. Like Republicans would destroy oil fields.
Zinsky
The conservative vermin are wasting no time criticizing Obama’s speech last night. We need to reinstate the draft with no deferments or exceptions and send their children to die in the sands of Iraq and Syria. It might be a teachable moment when their kids come back as a bucket of goulash in a body bag.
Baud
@Zinsky: I understand the frustration, but that’s as silly as “let Republicans win so America will learn its lesson.”
Keith G
@Mustang Bobby: Congratulations. I wish I was nearby. I would like to see your work.
I will email friends I have in your area and point out that that is something they should look into.
Mustang Bobby
@Keith G: Thanks.
magurakurin
@Zinsky: My rule is only people young enough to still be eligible for a draft get to call for a draft. And that goes double for saying “we need a draft.” If I was a young man and an old man told me that, I’d be all like, “who’s we, old man?” Don’t know if you are young or old, but if you are young, by my rule you can demand a draft. If not…you can’t.
OzarkHillbilly
The stupid, it burns:
bemused
@BillinGlendaleCA:
The poorhouses were run by county and local cities/towns but whether it would be big/federal or small/local government run “poorhouses”, I don’t know how people who suggest it would be a grand idea to bring poorhouses back ($19 trillion debt!) think they would cost less taxpayer monies than present programs. They don’t think, they just feel, and what they feel is angry resentment and want welfare programs to be a lot more shaming and punitive. I don’t think they actually care how much money it would cost them.
Iowa Old Lady
And this morning, I have a dead mouse. D-con for the win. Btw, I can’t get a cat. My son is allergic and would take that as a hostile action.
peach flavored shampoo
@OzarkHillbilly: Because being told they’re unable to fly doesn’t tip them off enough.
That should go in the Hall of Fame of Stupid Shit Said For Reals.
OzarkHillbilly
War on Christmas: Zombie nativity scene draws $500 a day fine from town as Christian protesters descend
No comment.
Iowa Old Lady
@OzarkHillbilly: Now there’s a guy who knows how to troll.
Betty Cracker
Now that the college football bowl picture is set, I’m wondering if there’s any interest in doing a Balloon Juice picks pool? I could set one up. Perhaps come up with some sort of a prize for the lucky weener…
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Alternatively, you could have gone with, “Political Correctness: No Comment.”
debbie
@bystander:
Depriving the enemy of its weapons surely spells failure.
Betty Cracker
@Iowa Old Lady: How about a rat terrier?
Iowa Old Lady
@Betty Cracker: We could get a rat terrier. Our last dog died a couple of years back and I miss having a dog around. Would it help with the mice? Sometimes the dog decides to lie on the couch no matter what its heritage is.
debbie
@Baud:
Even NPR was disappointed in the speech. After having the anti-Obama Mara Liasson report disapprovingly on the speech, they had only one interview analyzing the speech by an ex-Obama official, Alberto Fernandez, who disapproves of Obama’s policy.
I may need something else to listen to in the morning.
MomSense
@Mustang Bobby:
I so wish I could see that play.
debbie
@Baud:
I’d bet President Cruz would, just to make a point.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Iowa Old Lady: My dogs were completely useless with my mouse problem.
Scapegoat
@OzarkHillbilly:
FTFY!
BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: The point would be, “if we can’t have it, you can’t have it either”. Trump would do it too.
Betty Cracker
@Iowa Old Lady: I don’t know much about rat terriers, but they have a reputation as effective mousers and great all-around pets. Like you said, though, it might choose to lounge around instead of patrolling for rodents, like my two lazy-ass boxers, who render their “working group” classification ironic daily. Sounds like you need a dog anyway, and this is an excellent excuse!
raven
Pearl Harbor Day
magurakurin
@debbie: Even NPR? NPR stopped being a liberal voice at the end of the Clinton Administration. Quisling assholes the lot of them.
debbie
@magurakurin:
True, but they used to go to the trouble of giving equal time to both sides. Today they didn’t do that.
David Koch
I was watching “Homeland” last night.
This year’s story arc is on isil, leakers, and russia in syria. some of issues overlap, most of them don’t.
Anyway, the three hard nosed, deeep in the trenches cia guys all said: the last thing we need is another ground war as it would play right into isil’s hands.
A lot more persuadable will listen to that than an outdated morning show w terrible demographics.
Scapegoat
@bemused:
“All of it, Katie”
debbie
@raven:
From your link:
It seems some things never change, alas.
Elmo
@Iowa Old Lady: I have a rat terrier. I also have mice. I know this because the rat terrier spooks easily and will come running to hide in my lap if a mouse runs across the floor.
The rat terrier also insists that grass is deadly poison and wet feet will cause pneumonia, so making sure she pees outside in a rainstorm is a challenge. Taking her for a “walk” requires that I carry her most of the way. Outside is dirty and dangerous, she says, and why aren’t we back in the nice house with blankets and clean floors?!
Elmo
@Betty Cracker: see my comment above.
Iowa Old Lady
@Elmo: OK then. I may have to stick with shrieking and setting out poison.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Iowa Old Lady: The main reason that I didn’t do poison is my girls, that’s why I went with the sticky stuff.
magurakurin
@debbie: sad. Bed wetters one and all.
David Koch
BillinGlendaleCA
@magurakurin: I guess if Obummer had said, he had just signed a law that made ISIS illegal(like this Congress would pass anything) and we begin bombing in 5 minutes; they’d be happy.
ETA: Then again, probably not.
David Koch
U can thank me, too, someone who supported him from day one. Still shaking my head that any liberal supported warmonger Edwards.
D58826
@debbie: I agree Obama missed a great opportunity to reset his middle eastern policy. He should have announced a new unified interagency command based in Tikret.
As head of this joint command would be the world famous middle eastern expert tail gunner Ted Cruz. Obama would tap JEB! as the defense assistant given the Bush family’s vast experience in middle eastern wars. The Donald with his art of the deal and many Muslim friends would hold the diplomatic portfolio. The world famous financial expert Marco Rubio would be in charge of seeing that the money was well spent and the books balanced. Since the region is a mess, esp. after the carpet bombing, there must be a major (and very expensive) program to rebuild the infrastructure . Chris Christie’s experience with bridges will be invaluable here. And finally Carly Fiorino is the only person who can put this unwieldy group together in a smoothly functioning and profitable organization.
Now on a more serious note. Our ME allies must be looking at the US and wondering exactly how big a set of cowards we are. What I’m about to say in no way is meant to denigrate the loss of life or the pain the victims families are suffering however we have to put this in some perspective. A day in which only 14 people died in terror attacks in Iraq, Libya, or Syria would be considered a good day..In the US a nut with a gun and voices in his head kills 32 people at Virginia Tech and we shrug. Another nut with his own voices kill 20 first graders and 6 teachers and oh well its the price of freedom. A kook with a gun and a grievance shoots up a theater and kills 12 but the tree of liberty demands blood. A number of nuts over the years listening to GOD kill a dozen or more people at planned parenthood locations and it is just another day in the USA. BUT BUT BUT two nuts with guns and talking to ALLAH kill 14 people and it is the end of the world. Th political class serious hints at using nuclear weapons and maybe making Muslims wear a red crescent (the yellow star is already taken).
I’m not suggesting that we ignore the threat or simply let Daesh take overt he middle east but in the US we are more likely to choke to death on our morning coffee listening to Morning Joe than to die in a terrorist attack. That the President had to go on TV and reassure the public of that fact is a rather sad comment on the citizens of the ‘land of the freer and home of the (not-so) brave(.
David Koch
debbie
@D58826:
Not just cowards, cowardly bullies. Walk loudly and carry a thin pretzel stick.
OzarkHillbilly
@Scapegoat: Xmas was dead long before Amazon came along. Of course, the same can be said for Walmart. Doesn’t really matter, the point is Xmas hasn’t been a Christian celebration in a long time.
David Koch
also too, if going to war in Syria is such a good idea why isn’t anyone else doing it? Even Putin isn’t committing ground forces. Not even iran or the likudniks in israel are interested.
Scapegoat
@magurakurin:
Depressing fact. Loved (and supported) NPR three decades ago. Today? Can only shake my head. Any idea how this happened?
Between Fox “News” and NPR (Nice Polite Republicans) it’s easy to see why so many are cray-cray. I get the low-info crowd. But infiltrating the high-info crowd’s news source was brilliant subterfuge by the GOP.
(“Quizling”: word of the day!)
Satby
@Iowa Old Lady: Cats can be a mixed mouse hunting bag anyway. I’ve had cats that turned and looked at me when a mouse ran by with a look that clearly conveyed “Did you see that? What are you going to do about that?”
Baud
@D58826:
Doubt it. Foreign countries are dealing with the Obama administration directly and probably aren’t paying that much attention to our internal politics.
Satby
@Mustang Bobby: I wish I was down there to be able to go!
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Baud
@Scapegoat: The high-info crowd wanted to be infiltrated.
David Koch
OzarkHillbilly
@Satby: My cat is actually a good mouser. 2 or 3 times every winter a mouse finds it’s way into our house. I’ll hear them in the walls at night… once. The cat will jump off the bed and head for where ever it is she knows they must come out and that is the end of that.
Scapegoat
@Scapegoat:
QUISLING
(sigh… mobile devices, fat fingers)
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
David Koch
Scapegoat
@Baud:
rikyrah
Look at the plans, people.
…………………..
The Isis papers: leaked documents show how Isis is building its state
Blueprint lays bare new contours of Islamic state, complete with civil service, regional government and Soviet levels of economic control
A leaked internal Islamic State manual shows how the terrorist group has set about building a state in Iraq and Syria complete with government departments, a treasury and an economic programme for self-sufficiency, the Guardian can reveal.
The 24-page document, obtained by the Guardian, sets out a blueprint for establishing foreign relations, a fully fledged propaganda operation, and centralised control over oil, gas and the other vital parts of the economy.Analysis The Isis papers: behind ‘death cult’ image lies a methodical bureaucracy
The manual, written last year and entitled Principles in the administration of the Islamic State, lays bare Isis’s state-building aspirations and the ways in which it has managed to set itself apart as the richest and most destabilising jihadi group of the past 50 years.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/07/leaked-isis-document-reveals-plan-building-state-syria
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Mustang Bobby: I wish I could be there. It sounds terrific. Shoot me an email if you’re in the neighborhood this month and I’ll take you to lunch/coffee/dinner. A mini meetup, if you will.
rikyrah
For my Chicago folks who also happen to be Downton Abbey Fans:
Dressing Downtown-Changing Fashion for Changing Times
Driehaus Museum
Beginning February 9, 2016
http://www.driehausmuseum.org/dressing_downton
Keith G
@magurakurin: @Scapegoat: It’s not NPR’s mandate to be a liberal voice. I would settle for them to be truth tellers and sometime they fail at that big time, but against slim competition they can be good at it.
I wish they were better. Nonetheless some of their reporters, while imperfect, are quite good.
D58826
@Baud: Maybe but the US government agencies track the activities of foreign political parties and public opinion. I suspect foreign countries do the same with our political process. After all Trump could be the next president.
bemused
@Scapegoat:
It’s their common core.
Baud
@D58826:
To some extent, but we have more resources devoted to that task and, for better or worse, broader interests than most countries. And we still are woefully underinformed.
Woodrowfan
“A Country Christmas”. crap. you know why most people live in urban areas, because living in the country sucks. I’ll take Christmas in New York over Christmas in bumbutt Tennessee any day.
D58826
@Baud:
On that we can agree. both at the governmental level and the individual level. I suspect that since anything that isn’t part of keeping up with the Kardashians doesn’t really register for most folks that bleeds over into how we do things in the government. We spend 600+ billion on DOD and just a few tens of billions on State.
Matt McIrvin
A correspondent to TPM proposes that we need to take suboptimal policy measures to prevent Trump or Cruz from getting elected:
I can see this person’s logic, but the problem is, this is one of the many ways they get you. You may think you can appease the Blood God with token measures, but you can’t. (Obama is already bombing ISIS-controlled territory, and the people who actually demand bombing of ISIS-controlled territory give him zero credit for this.) Its appetite is infinite.
rikyrah
h/t POU.
Read the twitter timeline of an actual foreign correspondent about what the President said, and what it means.
https://twitter.com/7im/timelines/673689270419230721
OzarkHillbilly
@Woodrowfan: Speak for yourself. I wouldn’t be caught dead in New York, at Xmas or any other time of the year. You know why? It’s full of people like you.
OzarkHillbilly
@Matt McIrvin:
All I can see is the stupid.
Scapegoat
@Keith G:
… and present more than one side of complex narratives (which has been a growing problem of late).
debbie
Glenn Beck’s calling in to his show from an undisclosed location in the Middle East. He’s trying to shepherd 500 Christian families to safety. Apparently the airport’s been closed due to threat of attack.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin: I was just shaking my head over that very same article. I don’t know why on earth TPM’s reader thinks engaging in “stupid” measures would do anything to ameliorate the panic. It seems akin to putting Social Security cuts on the table to show seriousness over the deficit hysteria. That didn’t work either.
Schlemazel
@Matt McIrvin:
As if acting insane has ever caused the nut jobs to calm down. History teaches us that it just makes them more insane.
Iowa Old Lady
@rikyrah: That’s an interesting series of tweets. Thanks for the link.
Schlemazel
@debbie:
More likely he is calling from the Midwest where he is selecting his date for the night from 500 sheep.
gogol's wife
@magurakurin:
Yes, I haven’t been able to stomach them for at least 20 years.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Those tweets attest to the futility of a military response. The only thing that will end this is to end all the tribalism. Kurds vs. Turks, Sunni vs. Shia, etc. What is it that got the Balkans to calm down that can be translated to this situation?
gogol's wife
@David Koch:
Right. Anyone who watched that speech would be calmed, reassured, and would understand the true nature of what is going on.
But did people watch it? Or do they just watch their own filters?
Gin & Tonic
@debbie: In the Balkans pretty much every ethnic group got their own country. In the ME case, that’s a non-starter, as nobody will give up the territory that would be Kurdistan.
Matt McIrvin
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s kind of the equally dumb flip side to the Salon purity ponies. The centrist, political-jiujitsu version of the worse-is-better argument, rather than the heighten-the-contradictions version.
Paul in KY
Saw Ms. Stirling at Bunbury back in June. Was quite impressed that she could hold a large crowd by only fiddling. No vocals at all. Had 2 backup dancers.